How cool would it be to have your own spot; always glassy, never worry about getting kicked out, able to ride whenever you want? What started as a crazy thought among friends has turned into the 252 Pond. This haven is hidden in the farmlands of Eastern NC, just outside of Wilson (area code 252). Mike Thigpen already had a small pond directly across the road from his front door, so around the end of 2007 the Thigpen’s hired someone to come in with a drag-line machine and dig it out big enough for us to ride in. We then treated the water to keep the algae and wildlife down and also added some human-friendly pond dye to turn the water tropical blue.

We haven’t taken any actual dimensions, but our guess is the pond is about 300′ long, 40′ wide, and 10′ deep. Because of the depth, we decided to do a floating slider and a kicker. A buddy donated his 24′ slider that we added floating platforms and ride-on transition to, which added 8′ to the length, totaling 32′ long. Another friend gave up his quarter-pipe that we mellowed out the transition on and skinned with bathboard. Our plan is to eventually start adding and changing up some of the stuff to keep it fresh.

We got the pond finished, but still didn’t have a winch, so we started pulling with the 4-wheeler while we built our winch. We now have a 9hp, aluminum frame beast to pull with and still use the 4-wheeler as transportation back to the starting point. No walking and pulling out the rope here. The winch and all of our gear stays on a utility trailer so it is always ready to go.

No major hammers have gone down here YET, but we are getting several different slide / shuv variations, and a few tricks off the kicker. Hopefully we will all have a full bag-o-tricks to show off before too long. It is always cool to have someone come out who has never hit a slider or kicker, and share their stoke when they successfully ride away.

As an added bonus, all of the dirt from the dig is piled up around one side of the pond and creates a nice wind block. But Mike also has a backhoe that will be used later to play in the dirt with, Tonka style; Pool gaps, MX jumps, Sand castles, you get the idea.

The 252 Pond is located really close to I-95 and US-264, so if you are passing through NC or going to the NC coast, find a way to get in touch with us.